Jeremiah1212

It really doesn't matter which AQ Sky Suite you are in. The bridge wing has a full clear view along the side of the ship, especially first 2 dozen or so from the front. 

I just tried them again, against my own judgement, and within 48 hours was fed up and canceled the tickets. Their price on a mixed ticket business class R/T to Europe was substantially cheaper than I could book on my own. Within 24hrs of booking I had a flight cancelation notice for a flight that was definitely not canceled and the fare had reduced even further by about $700. After nearly 2.5 hours on the phone, they quote their infamous "30 business days" to contact the airline to get approval for replacement flights. You also have to call back for the status and I find typically it's not handled correctly then they like to quote another 15-30 day window for resolution. I also potentially had $700+ on the line because of the flux in pricing that they cannot secure.  

The efficiency they operate with is really embarrassingly poor. Had the flight truly been canceled and I had booked direct, I would have had this resolved via the airline app in 30 seconds. I gladly paid more after popping over to Delta and booking within minutes, which took 1hr 19 minutes via Celebrity on the first call. 

That is just one experience but it is par for the course in dealing with them. 

12 hours ago, Cruzinram said:

For the time being DO NOT purchase any gift cards for Celebrity until they can get their act together. Do not trust the policy statement. No where does it say third part gift cards cannot be used for onboard purchases. That seems to be the issue. I was told that yes for fare purchase they will be accepted but at this point I have reason not to trust them. We have been customers of Celebrity for 30 years. We are working on a solution, but I am not comfortable with their resolution. I told Guest Service that unless the policy statement is corrected they will continue to have this problem. Also do not trust the terms and conditions the gift card provider has. They are not correct either. A complete fiasco. Just about ruined our Cruise. I confirmed the acceptance  of these cards before sailing just be sure and it still is a mess.

Unfortunately saw that one coming. The “policy statement” you keep referring to is not for AARP gift cards. What you’ve experienced is exactly what was to be expected. Your AARP gift cards have their own separate terms and conditions. 

You'll always get polarizing answers to this question. A few people will surface to tell stories about how Celebrity is their kids' favorite cruise. There are generally very few kids on Celebrity and there is reason for it. If your kids are okay with generally nothing geared towards kid friendly activity, lack of multiple casual eating options and staying busy off the ship during the day, it may be fine. If they need entertainment and the RCL/NCL type attractions, it's not a good fit. 

32 minutes ago, 1Virgo said:

would you please go back and read my post. I said “Celebrity would   show sold out as technically the cabins are sold  to a travel agency”.  .     geesh.   Being a TA, you would know that.   I could have used far more words than necessary.     little picky today????   

 
I read it. Your statement is still incorrect. The cabins do not “show as sold”. 

50 minutes ago, 1Virgo said:

 

i never said specific cabins.   They do hold blocks, or a number of potential cabins to be sold,  in each category.     And from what I was told, cabins can be released back to Celebrity later than 4 months out.    Unless the TA has no idea about what he is talking

I am the TA. You said the cabin would “show as sold” which is not true. The TA can sell any open cabin within the category they have group inventory. 
 

120-150 days is the firm stop date depending in itin length, sometimes earlier based on demand. Never later. 

3 hours ago, Cruzinram said:

Straight off the Celebrity Web site. New Policy FAQ. A lot of misinformation about this policy. Read it carefully.

 

Again, these are not the same as the AARP gift cards. 

13 hours ago, 1Virgo said:

Sometimes travel agencies have cabins,even upper levels, they turn back as they havent sold. Celebrity would show sold as technically the cabins are sold but to a travel agency. 

Not really. TA’s hold a specific number of cabins in a given category, not specific cabins. The inventory held goes back to Celebrity at minimum 4 months before the cruise date, or when Celebrity decide to pull it back. No one is holding Iconic suites in a group space. 
 

Celebrity often does offer all the way up to IC in MoveUps. In the off chance someone cancels they can double dip on the cabin. Your chance of winning is very unfavorable but technically not impossible. 

8 minutes ago, TMLAalum said:

Sounds intriguing! Do you have a link for purchasing them via AARP? Or is there a place to enter AARP member # on the links provided by @Jeremiah1212?

The gift cards AARP sells and the new gift cards Celebrity is selling are two totally different things. You cannot buy Celebrity's gift cards and apply an AAPP discount. They both have their own unique terms and conditions in how they can be redeemed also.  

There is no new gift card policy. There are now gift card available for sale through this link: 

https://celebritycruises.cashstar.com/store/recipient?locale=en-us

https://celebritycruises.cashstar.com/self_service/v2/about/faq/

If you have any other type of gift card like once you received through an employer incentive, those still fall under the same parameters and usage rules as they always did.

To piggy back off this thread a little, Celebrity provided some insight on the new brand campaign (not a new brand...that would be a very different thing). The whole WonderFULL campaign in fall 2022 and in my opinion, it never resonated. 

They call out a few interesting tidbits in the direction they are moving and how the Celebrity brand is perceived. They admitted that the identity was muddy - to which I would agree. 

They named the competitors and what people see them as being known for.

Royal Caribbean - adventure

NCL - freestyle 

HAL - traditional 

Princess - love (weird, but okay) 

Virgin - revolutionary 

Celebrity - ????? pushing to be known as Elevated 

Silversea - luxury 

They clearly defined their target customer as 45+ couples who are experienced cruisers opposed to what was formerly "Aspirational consumers". That term in and of itself was perhaps part of the problem. What does that mean? I have no idea. 

There is a new look and feel with photography and video. It's pretty well done and more interesting than the former very staged photos they used in the past. More to come within the next few months which they somewhat suggested would be rolled out with additional Xcel details. 

16 hours ago, villauk said:

The new sale after the rebranding is definitely worse than the previous sale. Suddenly the prices are up and the discount is down to 30% off both passengers. Holding out now before booking.

The US and GB sales are different. US is still 75% off second guest plus the rotating savings. That promotion will be in place until June.

Bimini and Labadee on the same cruise. A lot of people don't like Grand Cayman. If you're a stay on the ship person that is okay but that's probably the worst Caribbean itinerary they currently sell. 

Historically (pre-covid) between Thanksgiving and Christmas prices were pretty reasonable across the board. 

Plenty. I’ve had 7am pickups and had to wait 30 minutes. 

Long held unpopular opinion. The coffee at Al Bacio is not great. It’s typically some unknown mid ground between a latte, cappuccino or flat white. They pull a shot and dump in whatever ratio of steamed milk or foam they have ready, at whatever temperature. The pull itself typically isn’t that bad but it’s very inconsistent. If you get a drink to consume there in a proper mug it’s a bit better. If you like Starbucks you probably think it’s fine. 
 

For reference, we have a La Marzocco at home. 

Heard from a friend yesterday that they may have rolled out the additional wine offerings on Beyond yesterday? Cannot confirm first hand. Although this is her fifth cruise since Christmas so I typically trust her feedback. 

Someone was very confused when they wrote their review. Maybe too many frozen cocktails? Entirely incorrect. 

Unless you are in an upper suite you have virtually no chance of getting a pre-cruise request fulfilled. Unless it's something that can be booked and paid for ahead of time or a situation that special needs handles, this isn't something Celebrity does. 

Travel insurance often excludes coverage for pandemic/endemics, war, civil unrest, terrorism, riots and so on. These things could occur anywhere in the world at any time. Celebrity does nothing to insulate against those possibilities either. At some point you have to be willing to cut your losses if there is an excluded event that impacts your trip, the airline opts to do nothing if the destination airport is closed, and the cruise line elects to continue with the cruise despite a catastrophic event. 

You need to talk to Celebrity or your TA. With the recently added Retreat Privilege program they may view this differently than in the past. 

9 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

I noticed that, too. When I was looking over Galapagos cruises a while back, I noticed a very uneven rollout of the itineraries.  So I think that this could mean anything. We will see. 

I would keep an eye on Silversea and see what they do mid 2026. Although their Jan-March 2026 Galapagos just released in Nov 2023 so it will be a while. 

On 3/23/2024 at 4:45 PM, catspaw1 said:

Hi All, We booked a Galapagos cruise next year on the Xploration but the TA said Celebrity was phasing this ship out. Anyone hear of this & if so when?  we booked cruise only so would like to know if they will switch us to another ship. We chose the Xploration because of its small size.

Nothing official has been provided by Celebrity yet but there has been zero mention of anything other than Flora for the 2026 cruises that were just released.  

30 minutes ago, phoenix_dream said:

And even then, I have seen people reporting the cruise only rates on new cruises decreased by way less $$$ than the perks actually cost.  I can't personally vouch for this being true,  but if it is that will really cause a (justified) uproar.  I was really happy to see this change. But the more I hear about it now I'm not so sure.

Which would be expected. I haven’t actually seen factual rates yet but I would be extremely surprised if they simply reduced the fare by the retail (Cruise Planner) price of Premium drinks and Premium WiFi.
 

If anyone was expecting suite prices to suddenly be significantly reduced, I’m afraid they may be disappointed. 

5 hours ago, Merc85 said:

Delta just says she has to talk to Celebrity Air since they booked it for her.  Maybe their site wouldn't let her make the change if she was actually able to even look at it.  Thanks for the info.
Still the same learning for me about Celebrity Air.......you cannot go directly to the actual carrier since you used Celebrity Air to book the flights.

It shouldn’t matter in this case. Delta has policies for TA booked tickets. If the schedule change meets the guidelines they will rebook. This website is probably overkill but the policies are here:

https://pro.delta.com/content/agency/us/en/policy-library.html

It still leaves me with the impression her ticket doesn’t qualify for a free change based on the requirements which is why they kick it back to Celebrity. If that’s not the case, I would press it with Delta not Celebrity.  

If the original arrival into the LHR is the same and the JFK connection is legal, I'm missing something to see why Delta would allow a complimentary change. It wouldn't meet any of the guidelines.

• A delay of 120 minutes or more
• A change in the routing of a scheduled Delta flight which adds one or more stops to the original itinerary
• A change in equipment from Delta Mainline to Delta Connection carrier
• Any change that causes a misconnect
• If a flight cancels and no comparable or acceptable routing is available within 120 minutes 

This isn't really a Flights by Celebrity issue. She can call Delta and see what they will do instead of trying to self serve it.